In Top Gun 2, 2022 hit, Tom Cruise reprises the role of Maverick, 36 years after the release of the first episode. No stranger to stunts, is he really the one piloting the planes in the film?
Tom Cruise loves to perform his own stunts. He has thus forged his own cinematographic legend over the years thanks to the different episodes of the Mission Impossible saga. It is therefore generally assumed that all his stunts are now carried out by himself. But if he has already jumped on planes or done free falls in other feature films, has he really piloted the machines of Top Gun: Maverick? The answer is not that clear-cut.
To agree to make this sequel, Tom Cruise insisted that the film not use computer-generated images. The actor is therefore in the cockpits of the planes that his character pilots. In the scene where Maverick pilots a P-51 Mustang warbird, it is indeed Tom Cruise who pilots the plane in front of the camera. Little anecdote, it is also Cruise’s personal plane!
On the other hand, when it came to flights in the American Navy’s F/A-18s, we had to adapt. If Tom Cruise really wanted to take the controls of the fighter plane, this could not have been possible, despite the military preparation program that the star had followed. The reason? The cost of such a plane, which easily exceeds 70 million dollars. We can therefore imagine why the United States Navy did not allow Tom Cruise to have fun with it!
However, Tom Cruise is in the cockpit of an F/A-18 in Top Gun 2, just like his fellow actors. The plane was simply flown by a real Navy pilot. So, when Tom Cruise is on screen in a cockpit, we really see him reacting to gravity and the G-force received during real flight sessions!
film profile
Synopsis – Refusing to move up in rank to still have the right to fly, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is entrusted with training students at the Top Gun school. They will have to carry out a particularly dangerous mission and it is up to Maverick to ensure that they can carry it out successfully. In doing so, he meets his late friend Goose’s son.
- Tom Cruise as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell
- Miles Teller as Lieutenant Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw
- Jennifer Connelly : Penny Benjamin
- Jon Hamm as Cyclone
- Glen Powell as Hangman
- Lewis Pullman as Bob
- Charles Parnell as Warlock
- Bashir Salahuddin as Coleman
- Monica Barbaro: Phoenix
- Jay Ellis: Payback
- Danny Ramirez: Fanboy
- Greg Tarzan Davis as Coyote
- Val Kilmer : Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky
- Ed Harris as The Admiral
- Jean Louisa Kelly as Sarah Kazansky
- Manny Jacinto as Fritz
The first opinions are in. Top Gun: Maverick totally won over the critics during the press screenings and the Cannes screening. The feature film already has 97% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the press review aggregator listing 111 comments from international media. In France, we are also won over by the return of Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell. “It’s mind-blowing” for Le Figaro, while Télérama recognizes that it is “pure cinematic pleasure.” For TF1, “the sequel to the cult 1986 film plays the nostalgia card intelligently while multiplying the astonishing action scenes”. The return of Top Gun is, it seems, a success, to be discovered without fail on the big screen.
It’s a huge success for Top Gun 2. Spectators responded for the return of Maverick in this sequel, released 36 years after the first part, on May 25, 2022. In one month, the film worn by Tom Cruise became the biggest cinema success of the year on a global scale, exceeding a billion dollars in box office revenue. In detail, 522 million dollars were raised in North America and 484 million in the rest of the world in just a few weeks.
If we compare with other blockbusters, Top Gun: Maverick achieved a better score than Doctor Strange 2 ($950 million) released in the same periods. In France, Top Gun 2 is also the success of the year 2022, having achieved 4.1 million admissions in a single month. In total, more than 36 million euros were raised on French soil for Top Gun Maverick.
Exit “Take my breath away”, place in “Hold my hand”. Lady Gaga was chosen to perform the title song of Top Gun 2: Maverick. You can listen to “Hold my hand” below to form your own opinion on this new track, before finding out if this title will surpass the cult “Take my breath away”.
Top Gun 2: Maverick was previewed at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2022, just one week before its release on French screens. For the occasion, the French patrol flew over the Palais des Festivals and Tom Cruise received a surprise honorary palm of gold from the hands of Thierry Frémaux and Pierre Lescure.